


Some Doors Don't Want to Open

by fictitiousLiterate



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Canon typical blood, Hospital, M/M, MAG 160, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Not Beta Read, mentions of canon typical eye trauma, mostly comfort, what if jonah's ritual just didn't work?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25271020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictitiousLiterate/pseuds/fictitiousLiterate
Summary: Martin comes home from shopping to a bit of a mess
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Comments: 6
Kudos: 211





	Some Doors Don't Want to Open

When Martin returned to Daisy’s safe house he found Jon unconscious in a pool of blood. When he ran over to him he saw the blood-soaked statement of Jonah Magnus and dread chilled over his bones. How could a statement have done this?

Martin’s first steps were to see if Jon was still breathing (yes) and if he could get him awake (no). He decided the next thing to do would be to call 999. He wasn’t even sure EMTs _could_ help, given what Jon was, but there was so much blood and he couldn’t bear to lose Jon again. So he called them and explained that he came home to his boyfriend unconscious and bleeding. He didn’t tell them that his boyfriend wasn’t quite human or that he strongly suspects their evil boss writing a letter was the reason for all the blood.

“Mr. Blackwood, does your boyfriend have prosthetic eyes?” One of the EMTs asks, they must read the confusion on his face because they clarify, “the eye sockets don’t look damaged but the majority of the blood seems to have come from there. The hospital would be able to take a better look but we can’t find any evidence of _where_ the bleeding came from.”

“Well,” Martin begins carefully, trying to figure out what to say that won’t make him sound utterly mad. _He’s the servant of the Dread Power of Eyes, you see, and…_ “He had two real eyes this morning and when I came back about two hours later he was covered in blood. I don’t know more than that.”

Not technically a lie. When ( **when not if** ) Jon wakes up he might have a better explanation. Missing his eyes is… interesting. He remembers the first time Jon asked him to run away with together. When the Lonely had it’s numbing clouds over his heart and Jon had told him first how to quit the Institute. He had called Jon’s bluff then; he knew Jon wouldn’t gouge his eyes out. So why were they gone now? _How?_ It must have been in Jonah’s statement. Did Jonah have that power? To just rip the eyes out of someone? It didn’t seem likely, given what he put up with from himself, Tim, and Melanie. Surely one of them would have earned an eye-gouging in the past 4 years.

Once they arrived at the hospital doctors ordered several tests to discover the source of the “unknown” bleeding. Apart from needing a transfusion and not having eyes, Jon was in fine health. He was possibly slightly underweight but that wasn’t news to Martin. They told Martin that Jon would probably need to just sleep it off and they wanted to keep him for observation overnight, anyway. Seeing Jon surrounded by machines again probably would have sent Martin spiraling if it wasn’t for the fact that there were far fewer of them this time and they were beeping away happily instead of flatlining. He figured at this point he should call Basira and tell her what had happened.

“Hello? Basira speaking.” She sounded as direct and clipped as usual.

“It’s Martin,” he began.

“I take it you’re calling about the Institute?”

“What? No, I called to tell you Jon’s in the hospital again. Eli-Magnus slipped a statement in with what you sent us and I think it severed him from the Eye.”

“I...don’t think it was just him that got severed. Milbank Prison, the building under the Institute, collapsed this morning. The whole Institute is gone.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yup, sounds like the ‘beating heart’ is crushed under several tons of rubble and tape recorders and we’re all fine. Well, except for Jon. Just keep your heads low while you’re at the hospital and let me know when you get back to the safe house. Bye.”

“Yeah, bye.”

Well, that was certainly an interesting conversation. The Panopticon had collapsed at around the same time as Jon had, ostensibly, read Jonah’s statement. Maybe it was a failed ritual? If it was, who would have been the one to stop it? _Had_ Jon actually cut his own eyes out to stop himself from reading? Then why did the medical professionals fail to find any evidence of that? Melanie doing it certainly had left evidence from what he heard.

It was a lot to ponder as Martin took sickeningly familiar vigil over Jon’s bedside. He took Jon’s hand and it was so much warmer than it had been during the coma. He could watch the rise and fall of Jon’s chest now or press fingers to a pulse point and be sure Jon was alive. That Jon was coming back to him.

When he did come back, some point in the early evening, he was screaming.

“Jon, Jon, it’s ok, I’m here,” Martin reassured. Jon turned his head in the direction of the sound.

“ _Martin??”_ Jon asks in the most broken, unbelieving voice Martin has ever heard. The nurse who came into the room at the sound of the screaming stands by quietly, sensing they maybe need a moment.

“Yeah, I’m right here. We’re in the hospital.”

“Martin I...I thought you... I _saw_ you… What happened? Why can’t I see you?”

“Just a bad dream, love.” At this point, Martin notices the nurse. “We can talk after the nurse does his job, ok?”

Jon nods and keeps Martin’s hand in a white-knuckled grip while he answers the nurse’s questions. Some standard name, PM’s name, year questions to further assess for head trauma. It takes Jon a moment to remember the year. The nurse also asks what the last thing Jon remembers is and it takes him a long moment to say “Martin going to the store.” Jon is the one who asks about his eyes. Somehow Martin being audible was more important to him than seeing. The nurse is as confused as the EMT, claiming Jon’s eye sockets are healthy and there doesn’t appear to be any scar tissue. They both try to explain that Jon did have eyes this morning but now they were gone. It’s not the weirdest thing the nurse has heard and he tells them a doctor will be able to answer more of there questions when Jon is discharged in the morning.

“So what actually happened?” Martin asks as soon as the nurse leaves.

“I was hoping you’d be able to tell me. I know what I remember happening but…” He squeezes Martin’s hand. “Obviously it’s not the case.”

“I came home after you read Elias’ statement and you were covered in blood,” Martin begins. “You had also lost your eyes and weren’t waking up so I called 999 to take us to the hospital. What do you remember happening?”

“I remember Magnus’ statement. He wanted me to end the world, Martin. I remember how I ended the world. I tried to stop reading but I _couldn’t_ ,” Jon says. “I watched you die in the world I ended.”

“You will be happy to know that not only did _Magnus’_ ritual fail, but he’s dead.” Martin sits on the edge of Jon’s bed and pulls him closer. Jon happily accepts the comfort and rests his head on Martin’s shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

“When I called Basira to tell her what happen she told me the Panopticon collapsed and took the Institute down with it. I don’t know exact time tables but it happened around the same time as your collapse.”

Jon starts laughing and Martin can feel it against his shoulder. He didn’t get to hear Jon laugh in the Archives. Even during their first two weeks in the safe house, Jon’s laughter had been a rare thing. Hearing it that they were free and together was something else. Martin couldn’t help laughing along.

“He wanted to be “King of the Ruined World,”” Jon says theatrically once they calm down.

“What a loser,” Martin giggles.

“Martin, can I...may I touch your face?” Jon asks bringing his hand up to level with Martin’s neck. Martin takes Jon’s hands and presses a kiss to each of them before letting them linger on his cheeks. He can’t help but smile and Jon’s fingers find his dimples. 

“Just as handsome as ever,” Jon says wistfully. Martin’s knee jerk reaction is to deny it, but Jon had recently become _very_ insistent in his compliments. Jon called it “exposure therapy” whenever Martin brushed off a compliment he got at least three more. Martin wondered if it was part of Jon trying to make up for things he said in the past or if Jon was just as relentless in his relationships as he was in his work.

“Takes one to know one,” Martin replies as Jon’s hands travel upwards one runs over his nose while the other one settles next to his eye.

“You know I love you, right?” Jon’s tone is still soft and Martin remembers what he said earlier _I watched you die in the world I ended._

“Yeah,” he replies, “as much as I love you. Do you want to talk about your nightmare?”

“It wasn’t real. I don’t know how long it’s been since I had a nightmare that wasn’t real. _You’re_ real and in my arms,” Jon says smiling. “We’re happy together and the world didn’t end.”

There’s a lot they still need to do in the morning but for now they can cuddle peacefully in a world that didn’t end

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @leighistired on Tumblr. Come say hi!


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